Making a Referral Program Work: 6 Ways to Do it Right

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Chiradeep is a content marketing professional with 8 Years+ experience in corporate communications, marketing content, brand management, and advertising.

Over the course of his tenure, he’s worked on several big-ticket projects, led and trained a variety of teams, and been instrumental in driving delivery quality, timeline adherence, and talent harvesting.

Don’t exhaust or overburden you employees with a complex or convoluted process. Make it engaging and meaningful for all concerned - with our 6 key recommendations.

An employee referral strategy can often seem to be an onerous task; creating a program that genuinely inspires, getting employees to take ownership of the initiative, and finding recruiting tools geared for a truly effective returns pattern. However, talent always breeds and reconnects you with greater talent. If you’re looking for high-quality employees, this is a great place to scouting for the same. There are many aspects to an adequate and effective referral strategy.

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Having said that, like most recruiting tools and HR methodologies, there are a couple of basic building blocks that are always common, easy to remember and help to get one started. Here are 6 essential riders of any referral strategy, that one can’t afford to miss:

1. Appreciate an employee’s effort to refer

It doesn’t get any simpler than this. If an employee has actually taken time to refer a known acquaintance, make sure he or she is sufficiently rewarded. And know it’s not just about a compensation - it means recognizing, celebrating, and acknowledging the person in public, through a medium of mass communication (a mailer, a town hall mention, or a card signed by senior management). This will only foster a desire to refer again and inculcate the same in others operating in the employee’s ecosystem.

A big chink in most referral strategies is that they sometimes tend to go dark after a couple of rounds. It’s vital for HR teams to utilize the recruiting tools at hand to maintain a regular communication pathway with the employee who made the referral. Share your thoughts on the applicant, keep him or her abreast of developments, and don’t forget to appreciate him or her for their attempt to bring you the best talent.

When it comes to technical talent, opting for a referral strategy is usually the way to go, and with good reason: “Hiring a developer is expensive and it can take quite a long time to find that perfect candidate,” says Sydney Stone from iTechArt, a NYC-based software development & outstaffing company.

“Developers tend to hang out with other developers. Start with your current team and ask them if they have any friends who might be interested in joining your team. A lot of companies, including smaller businesses and startups, swear by their employee referral programs. This is a much more cost-effective recruiting method than paying costly recruiter fees, cuts down on the time it takes to hire, and builds employee morale overall.

3. Make referrals an easy process

If your employee referral strategy and associated processed are dense, the odds are you’ll turn away most of the possible interested workers. Use a variety of the software solutions and referral-supported recruiting tools available, to make employee referrals easier, simpler, and faster in execution.

A referral bonus isn’t just all you need to do. Speaking to the employee, as mentioned, rewarding the behavior, a small incentive - like a gift card, a leaderboard with points for referrals, and tangible rewards, like a t-shirt or coffee mug, go a long way in making an employee feel special, and his or her contribution, of real significance.

5. Advertise the initiative

If a referral strategy has to succeed, it must be communicated effectively. Eye-catching mailers, attractive workspace collaterals, and regular reminders, all created in a warm, conversational, and vibrant tone of voice, helps make the program appear approachable, fun, and evocative of a person’s desire to contribute. Remember, your job is to ‘manufacture’ and inspire enthusiasm; the rest will happen on its own.

Talent Relationship Management solution company Phenom People recently entered the internal mobility referrals market, with a $22 million Series B. Phenom is known for creating attractive and memorable candidate experiences, a must-have when you’re trying to boost awareness and recall.

No one program works for every company, and it’s important for HR teams to experiment with the kind of program and set of recruiting tools best suited for their enterprise. While fashioning such an initiative, it’s critical to keep an eye on the following:

Educating employees on why referrals matter

Conveying the criticality of recruitment for a particular position

Spreading the program to one and all, across hierarchies

Prioritizing positions that are tough to fill

Showcasing referral successes

Creating a ‘contest’ to promote a referral program

You can even integrate your referral mechanisms directly with the recruitment ATS, for complete visibility over what’s happening. Popular hiring app Workable offers this feature, via a recent integration with Preferhired.

That’s it then! These are some of the most common methods to push a referencing blueprint.

Intelligent HR teams create referral strategies that remove the tedium or seriousness of the same and transfuse a sense of dynamism, engagement, and involvement, and oneness with the company’s goals, targets, and mission statements.

So, go out there, and envision a program that works, even as it makes referrals a more enjoyable and collaborative activity. Here’s to great connectivity and finding the links, between the missing pieces!